6 Steps To Organize Your Mind And Find Daily Peace

God is the creator of our powerful minds. He gave us the free will to use those minds to co-create our lives with Him. 

Do you know that you have the power to create peace with your mind? Yes, you can actually train your thinking habits to have peace!

One of the best skills I have learned to create this peace for myself is how to organize my mind. There is a daily practice I use to download my thoughts, examine any that are causing negative feelings, and decide intentionally which thoughts to keep and which to release to feel peaceful. This practice allows me to live the best version of my day with a clear, peaceful mind.

Just like physical clutter that needs to be sorted, purged, and reorganized, a cluttered mind needs regular attention and care. 

The process I’ll teach you here truly offers me peace each and every day. Try it out for yourself!

1. Become aware of your thinking with a thought download

What you choose to think about and believe is the key to sustaining peace. Your thoughts, not the outside circumstances of your life,  are the cause of everything you feel. If you aren’t feeling peaceful, that’s because of your thinking. This is such great news because you don’t have to rely on something outside of you to see different results in your life. 

Start by thinking about your thinking. Just write down the sentences in your mind. Observe these phrases as they come and write them down -- out of your mind and onto paper.

This first step is about observation, not judgment. So explore all the thoughts you have today, just see them and notice them (not judge them), especially the ones that are leading to negative emotions.

2. Examine one thought at a time

Now that we’ve got everything out of your head, we can begin to examine them more closely. It’s just as if you were cleaning out a closet and piling up one item of clothing at a time to observe and evaluate if it was still something you wanted to keep. Start with one thought that is related to a negative emotion you’re feeling, such as worry or irritation.

Then ask yourself the following questions:

• Is this thought serving me? Does it serve me to think it?
• Do I really want this thought? Do I want to keep thinking it?
• Is it a current thought to keep or an old outdated one? (Think of an out of style pair of pants vs. a current trend that you want to wear now.)

Continue asking questions about as many thoughts as you’d like, focusing on the ones that seem to be the most emotionally charged.

3. Let go of the thoughts that are not useful

Now that you have looked under the surface of some thoughts, and have become more intentional and aware about what you are actually thinking, you can decide if you want to keep those thoughts around or not. 

If the thought is no longer useful or beneficial to you, cross it out and say goodbye to it. Know that you can choose to never think it again!

You will want to overthink this process of letting go. It really can be that simple though, to discard a thought that doesn’t serve you any more, if you practice. Just as you would not choose to pick up and put on a sweater that doesn’t fit, you can choose not to think and believe a thought you are having. You can see it there, notice it and not put it on. But for the “tougher” ones that you have been thinking about for a while, it may take deliberately redirecting your mind to a thought that, when you think it, you feel better. 

4. Determine which thoughts will help you create what you want

We’ve decluttered the old, unhelpful thoughts that were not serving you. Now it’s time to think on purpose! Instead of a download, you can now upload any new patterns of thinking that will create the life you really want. We’re going to create thoughts that will serve you effectively moving forward. 

So what do you want to think? There may already be some ideas of thoughts that you’d like to believe. Start writing them down.

If you’re not sure what you want to think, one trick is to start by deciding how you want to feel. Here are some examples:

• Determined
• Motivated
• Possibility
• Courageous
• Focused
• Empowered
• Love
• Inspired
• Curious
• Confident
• Peaceful

Choose one feeling for now and imagine what it’s like to experience that particular emotion. When you’ve felt that feeling in the past, what were you thinking? What could you think now that would make you feel that emotion?

Here’s an example:

Feeling: Empowered

Thoughts you could choose:

• I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
• There’s nothing I can’t do that I put my mind to.
• I have got this!
• I was made for this.
• I have everything I need to get the job done.
• With God’s help, nothing is impossible. 
• If God is for me who could be against me?

If you’re not sure what thought to use, don’t hesitate to ask God for help. He provides the ultimate path to a peaceful mind and He can guide you to a new, higher way to use your powerful thoughts.

5. “Upload” new, intentional thoughts

So now you have a thought and feeling to work with, here’s how to start using them intentionally.

Just as you downloaded and took the thoughts you had swirling around in your head and put them down on paper, it’s time to upload positive, useful thoughts back into your mind. These are thoughts that will help and serve your life to create whatever it is you want in your life. The process is carried out in a very similar way as the “download.” This time, however, you’ll list on paper, with purpose, what thoughts you could think to feel better, what you want to believe to be true or thoughts you may think sometimes but it hasn’t become a deep belief yet. 

Oftentimes this comes by asking yourself a powerful question. Here are some examples:

• How is this working for me?
• What am I grateful about in this situation? 
• If I did know what to do, what would I be thinking? 
• What do I want to think about myself? 
• How could I think about this in the most loving way? 

So use questions as a prompt, and when you answer them, you’ll be thinking them as you read them. What’s left to do is to just choose to think the thought over and over again until you believe it. Maybe you even keep post notes of your “thoughts” where you can see them and remind your brain to think them on purpose.

6. Be kind to yourself

As you begin this process of organizing your mind each day, be sure to create a space of love and compassion for yourself. You’re developing your peaceful-mind muscle and it will take some time.

Be kind with your internal self-talk by being a little softer and gentler with how you label yourself, knowing the most loving thing you can do is to ease up on any judgment that arises.

Trust the Lord has you in the palm of His hands and remain curious about the possibilities of creating an organized and peaceful mind each day.

A divine order to your mind and life

Continue to use this mind organization process to choose thoughts that bring peace by recognizing and letting go of thoughts that don’t serve your life anymore. This is how you organize a divine order to your mind and life and make room for peace to move in.

If this process has been useful to you, you might enjoy The 30-Day Path to a Peaceful Mind, a downloadable resource of daily wisdom and prayer to help you intentionally focus your thinking towards peace to achieve a peaceful mind and life. 

Use these divine thought conditioners to practice peaceful thinking and being peaceful by using the prompts to connect daily with God through scripture, life coaching wisdom, prayer, and some peaceful thought-provoking questions. Purchase here for just $9.

The More from Catholic Life Coach, Danielle Thienel, visit www.daniellethienel.com and be sure to not miss her podcast: The Peaceful Mind Podcast for Busy Catholic Moms